For this photoshoot, Instead of the lighting studio, I would like to take some Cindy Sherman- type images in black and white. For this I would take them at a house which is an easy and accessible place to take photos. I chose to pick a house that gives a more old- fashioned impression. I had my model Lexi hold poses that were similar to Cindy Sherman’s poses. This is in hopes to replicate some of Cindy’s work, but to also interpret her work and make it my own.

PLANNING AND PREPARATION

I chose to make this mood board to give me ideas on what I want to incorporate when it comes to my Cindy Sherman inspired photoshoot. I decided to cut out both photos of Cindy Sherman’s photography and photos relating to people and genres of photos that I would like to include. These ideas could consist of makeup, hair, posing and expression.

In this photoshoot my model could be in a range of positions such as:

• Leaning against a door
• Looking out the window
• Sitting/ lying on the floor
• Working in the kitchen
• Reading something
• Writing something
• Thinking about something
• Looking over her shoulder
• Looking down or up
• Looking left or right
• Staring straight into the camera lens
• Sitting in a chair

These posing and positioning ideas will help me when it comes to having ideas when taking my photos. I aim to take around 50 or more photo. These will consist of multiple poses, setups and locations around my models house. I chose this location because this house has a more older, rustic and old- fashioned impression, which I decided was the best location to take my photos, instead of using the lighting studio.

As this is my first photoshoot out of school, I have decided to prioritize the content such as posing, facial experiments and merely the inspiration of Cindy Sherman’s content. I will attempt to maintain good lighting and camera settings, however It is not my main priority.

Some aspects I need to remember:

• To experiment was exposure
• Keep lighting simple
• Frame my subject
• Use black and white
• Experiment with different camera settings
• Plan ahead of time
• Have a clear plan of the costume, hair and makeup I would like my model to do.
• Use Lightroom and photoshop to further edit my photos

These are 6 main photos I would like to attempt to recreate and mirror with my own photoshoot and model. I think the two main thing to help show I an recreating Cindy Sherman’s photography is costume and locations.

The costume similar to what Cindy wears are items such as:

• Long pearls
• Long dresses
• Scarves
• Aprons
• Towels
• Long coats
• Heels
• Gloves

The locations similar to where Cindy goes are places such as:

• Kitchen
• On a chair
• Bedroom
• Living room
• Bathroom
• Dining room

ALL PHOTOSHOOT PHOTOS

Here are all the photos I took for my Cindy Sherman inspired photoshoot outside of school. I decided to categorise these images through having my least favourite images of a low quality labelled red. This may be a fuzzy, blurry low quality image which is accidental or used for experimentation with camera settings. I then have my yellow images which are of a higher quality but could be possibly slightly fuzzy or have the wrong camera settings. A green category image may be an image of high quality and may be used to edit. A blue image is an image that is edited and of its highest quality.

Example of a red category image:

Example of a yellow category image:

Example of a green category image:

Example of a blue category image:

In the first 10 minutes of my photoshoot, I decided to work with a lower quality and lower exposure and lower shutter speed with camera settings. This was to achieve a certain look of older photos taken in e.g. 1980s to replicate Cindy Sherman’s lower quality images.

My Camera Settings.

Example of a LOW QUALITY Cindy Sherman Image.

My Lower Quality Images.

MY BEST IMAGES

I then returned to focusing on high quality images and increased my camera settings to avoid blurriness.

Comparisons.

This is my photography inspired by Cindy Sherman’s work. I attempted to replicated the poses, not as much the costume or setting. I think this worked well whilst maintaining my own style but taking inspiration and referring back to Cindy’s Untitled Film Stills poses.

Photoshop Edits.

• In photoshop I made this image by opening all 4 photos in 4 different tabs in Photoshop.

• I then clicked and dragged my second photo onto my first photo, I repeated this process by clicking and dragging all 3 remaining images onto the first
• I then cropped and changed the angles of my photos my moving to tilt more to the left and right.

• I then double clicked on the layer I dragged decreased the opacity, I repeated this process for all 4 photos. I made my photos have all different opacities for effect.

• I then repositioned all my photos to fit to my preference. I wanted them to have all different sizes which I think helps the picture to look more interesting.

Virtual Gallery.

Photo Analysis.

Here are 4 of my headshot images presented in a gallery, they are set in a group of 4 all with different colours.

For this presentation I have decided to use two of my final edits and put them side by side in a gallery one has lots of colour while the other edit has more natural light and colour.

For all my photoshoots I have selected my best images that have been edited in Lightroom or photoshop and placed them inside a virtual (Artsteps) gallery.

Femininity and Masculinity

Evaluation and Critique

In this photoshoot I had experimented with the theme of masculinity, femininity as well as identity. I was very inspired by Claude Cahun and her style of work so I incorporated ideas from her own photoshoots into my work, for example, using a mirror to create a double portrait as well as bold makeup and outfits. I also wanted to keep some colour in a few of my photos because I like how Tsoku Maela incorporated it into his own work and how he used it to complement his subject’s skin tones as well as the other bright colours he has used .

I had used black and white filters in the majority of my second photoshoot to show more contrast with the colours in the image, especially the red makeup and hair.

The meaning I wanted to capture in my first photoshoot was that in modern society it is more accepted for young people to be more feminine, masculine or other, and identify as what they feel like without as much discrimination as past generations. However, I wanted to include sad expressions to show that despite society being more accepting, there is still hatred against trans people and identity. I also wanted to covey the idea of people still having an unclear identity so I have edited various images to have a blur-like affect mainly on the subject’s face.

In my second photoshoot I wanted to focus more on femininity. I included various elements of Claude Cahun’s style into it to show my interest and inspiration for my photoshoot.

I had used more sad expressions and objects, such as a gate, to convey the struggles of women and the role of femininity. The poses, which were inspired by both Claude Cahun and Tsoku Maela, I had used in my photos were also used to show this idea, including the idea of the male gaze.

I’ve experimented with using a piece of paper with a question mark drawn on it to suggest that femininity is still being questioned, however I felt like it made the meaning too obvious so I did not use it in the majority of my images.

I like how the majority of my images have turned out especially the black and white contrast affect on my second photoshoot and the blur affects I had experimented with on photoshop.

Next time I should aim to take a third photoshoot exploring masculinity and more identity. I should also try to improve on my lighting skills and make sure my images have an equal white balance.

Along with the virtual gallery, I have also created various mock ups of how I’d like to present my final images. I’ve experimented with various layouts and how I might mount them onto foam boards/card.

Below are some ideas that I have for presenting my photos.

Environmental Portraiture

Evaluation and Critique

In this photoshoot I had aimed to take a couple photographs of people in their natural everyday environment. I had managed to take pictures of a person metal detecting and my own mum doing tasks/hobbies that they regularly do.

In my first photoshoot I like how the flash of the camera captures the glass jug, that my mum is holding, and makes it look quite shiny. I also like the pattern on her trousers because it makes the image more interesting

In my second photoshoot with the metal detector I really like the contrast of his red jacket against the background, I also like how his tools take up some of the photo making it look not as empty.

Next time I need to take more photos with a bigger variety of poses or angles. I also need to make sure my exposure is balanced especially when using the flash on the camera.

Lighting Techniques

Evaluation and Critique

In this photoshoot I had worked on using different lighting techniques, Rembrandt, Butterfly and Chiaroscuro. I had taken photos at different angles, as well as a lower exposure, to try and capture the shadows that correspond to the lighting techniques.

I like how I’ve edited my photos to be brighter and colourful, but I also like the simplistic black and white images. I might use the format in the first screenshot for my images as I like the contrast of the bold yellow and green colours against the black and white image in the middle.

I should experiment more with different poses and take more photos of Chiaroscuro lighting. I also should use colour gels to add colour into the photos. I need to make sure when doing Chiaroscuro lighting to set the lighting up correctly.

Femininity

These are two of my strongest photos from Femininity because they show very feminine stereotypes and the image where the headphones are on shows what women have to hear about themselves and the negative things that people say about them.

Head Shots Virtual Gallery

These three Headshots I chose to put on the Virtual Gallery because they are connected together and are a series of photos to be displayed together. The colour on the background of these images outlines the head on the figure making the shadow stand out on the image.

Here I had the idea of combining the two genders into one photo, I made a collage of all my photos I took inspired by Cindy Sherman, I simply added all the photos to a blank piece of paper and removed the background of each of the photos to combine them as one, after I duplicated the collage and placed it side by side from the other one, I then placed two photos I took of boys and placed on top also removing the background. I left the pictures of the boys in colour as it helps to make both the collage and the singular photos of the boys stand out.

This is my favourite image I created for this whole photoshoot as I think its really creative and different. I chose to add the inspiration, Marilyn Monroe to my edit because I love the way she matches my image. I love the way I have presented my own image with a lot of other images of Marilyn Monroe, the inspiration of my whole femininity theme.

For this final edit I decided to use a range of different images from my femininity photoshoot which I felt represented women as a whole, these images tell a story of a pretty, young girl listening to music and putting on lip-gloss which is what stereotypically happens in todays world. The colours of the image are bright and could be seen as calming colours, this could be related to the fact that women are known to be timid, and usually quiet whereas men are seen to be rowdy and loud.

In this edit I played around with different effects and I decided to merge these two images to create a almost side by side of two in motion images that were taken one after the other.

For this edit I merged two separate models and changed the image into black and white, the blur effect gives a feeling of women being stereotypically the same whereas they are in fact very different as you can tell there are two different female models within this one image.

For this image I used two images one to be the main subject and the other image I copied and pasted either side of the main middle image whilst also blurring the images to create a unique effect to the edit. I chose the colour green as that is a relaxed colour and really helped bring out the models figure in the image against the dark background.

For this edit I chose two action shot images which were taken seconds apart from each other and decided to layer them creating the effect where you are able to see that the model was moving meanwhile I was taking the images.

For this edit I chose 3 completely different images and overlapped all three to create a merged image with various different focus points, this edit had a few different shades o red/orange and even a bit of pink it created a nice contrast within the edit.

Here I took the same photo and overlapped and copied the image 4 times this made a cool overlapping effect and created areas of darker green with some areas being lighter.

Headshot Final Edits :

⬆ For my first photo I edited I started by cropping it, so the subject was more centred and enhanced the blue by adjusting the colour levels and vibrancy and I also got rid of the blue glow, in the background, on the left behind the arm as the photo looked better without it.

⬆ For my next photo I started off by cropping it to make the subject more in centre and removed any marks with the spot remover tool. Afterwards I wanted to experiment by having my photo in black and white, I liked it but I thought the back and white could be better, so I went through all the options until I found one I really liked.

⬆ I edited the photo above in the same way I did with the previous photo I edited, so I can decide which one to use when I finalise my photos and because I wanted to see how this photo would work in black and white and I think it works well.

⬆ The photo above didn’t need much editing so I only cropped it and slightly adjusted the temperature, exposure and contrast. Which I personally think the photo looks better now as it only need small adjustments and nothing much more than that.

⬆ For this photo I wanted to edit it so stood out especially when it came to colour. I spent ages adjusting the colour levels, shadows, contrast, vibrancy and saturation until I found the perfect balance. What I like about the edited photo is the colours seem more stronger and powerful also the image feels more clearer than in the unedited photo.

The two artists that interested me especially in Masculinity & Femininity are Francesca Woodman and Shannon O’Donnell. I found them both extremely interesting people, however I think the reason why I like these artists is because their work is about the fluidity of identity and puts pressure on the stereotypes that are within masculinity and femininity. On the other hand, another artist I looked at was Cindy Sherman who explores these stereotypical roles and views of women which was something else I also wanted to represent.

Shannon O’Donnell

These were inspired by Shannon O’Donnell’s work – That’s Not The Way The River Flows. These are the images I wanted to use:

I put my images into black and white and got my subject into positions similar to O’Donnell’s. Similarly to her, I wanted to conceal the gender identity of my subject so I incorporated different parts of masculine and feminine stereotypical characteristics. For example, the first image is of a hand with an oversized plaid blazer yet the subject has long nails. In the second, my subject is dressed with large masculine shoes and a tie however they are also wearing jewellery with long nails. One hand has painted nails however the other is unpainted with a watch. In the last, I wanted to incorporate a more feminine aspect, so using the blazer to keep a slight sense of traditional masculinity, the subjects hand rests on a group of flowers with painted nails and a ring.

Comparisons and contrasts:

I think that these three images from my photoshoot shows a clear correlation to Shannon O’Donnell’s work because it joins the stereotypes of men and women onto one person which hides their gender identity. This shows how these masculine and feminine attributes can apply to anyone regardless of gender. As well as this, I feel that the images I produced look very similar to hers because they zoom in on certain areas of the body instead of an entire person.

In Shannon O’Donnell’s work she tends to use a plain one-toned background. In my first image I tried to replicate this however in the second one there is objects in the background such as a table, partially some flowers and the floor which adds more context for the viewer e.g. it is a home environment. Also, in the third image I have used some flowers coming up from the bottom left as I felt that this adds a more intricate design behind the image alongside a feminine touch.

Francesca Woodman:

I inspired a photoshoot by Francesca Woodman’s series of self-portraits. This was my favourite image:

For this image I used a slow shutter speed to recreate that effect on the head that Francesca Woodman used in her work so that it gives the viewer a sense of displacement. This applies well in gender identity as this can represent the struggles of growing up in a strongly gendered society. I put the image into black and white, not only from inspiration from both my artists but because I feel the light background causes the viewer to become drawn to the subject as she is dressed in darker clothes.

Comparisons and contrasts:

I think that this image shows a clear correlation with Woodman’s work because of my use of a slow shutter speed as that is what she does by turning away to the left.

In her work she tends to completely conceal the face from the camera with motion blur however, whilst I have captured this in my image, I have still managed to capture my subject’s eyes looking through. If I had turned down the shutter speed even more I would’ve gotten the same outcome, but I really like the way this gives a ghostly feel to the image, making it mysterious and unnerving. Although there is a plain background in my image, I feel that this hidden stare makes up for it as it adds that unnerving feel that Francesca Woodman’s backgrounds give.

Cindy Sherman:

My images:

Comparisons and contrasts:

Cindy Sherman in her work of ‘Untitled Film Stills’ acted in different personas of stereotypical women in the 1950s/1960s. However, in my work I have tried to represent the stereotypes of women in the modern day and the culture around it, especially with teenage girls instead of the traditional roles. In the 1950s and 1960s women were seen to be housewives however in the society we have now, the idea is that women are infatuated with how they look and become overly obsessed with this.

I am very happy with how my artist references turned out as I feel that they really inspired me.

Claude Cahun

Claude Cahun experimented with stereotypes and gender fluidity, so in my photoshoots, I decided to experiment with different male and female stereotypes, while also going against them, by getting a female to look more masculine and present a male stereotype (vise versa), just like Cahun did.

In this photo of Cahun she is a female, but she made herself look more masculine, by having her hair short and standing in a more masculine way. In my photo, I also made a female model look more masculine by having her wear a male coat with the hood up, so her long hair could not be seen. I also told her to stand more masculine and look tough. However, I also used coloured lighting to make her look more masculine, because the colour blue is stereotypically associated with males, even though Cahun didn’t.

I then attempted to create more photographs of my female models looking more masculine.

Cahun, a female, made herself look more masculine here by using a prop weight. This makes her look more masculine, because males are stereotypically seen as stronger. In my image on the right I didn’t go against the stereotype like Cahun did, because I used a male to represent the male stereotype that males are strong and tough. I did this, because I wanted to show that both men and women can be tough, when I placed them side by side.

However, Cahun did not have any male models represent female models to go against stereotypes, because she took images of herself (a female), so I decided to try and have a male model represent a female stereotype. I used lighting and my models facial expression to have him represent a female stereotype, which is that pink represents females. However, in this photo I also had the model going against a male stereotype, which is that men are aggressive. I used the pink/red lighting to help me do this, and his happy facial expression.

Cahun also experimented with gender fluidity a lot, so I decided to experiment with that aswell. I used blue and pink lighting to represent this in the studio, because the colours both represent either masculinity or femininity, so when I put them together they represent both.

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman also experimented with different stereotypes, but she also dressed up as these different characters, so in my photoshoots I didn’t just experiment with stereotypes, I also dressed my models up in different outfits, so that I could recreate Cindy Sherman’s technique, but in a different way. She dressed up as different feminine stereotypes, but because I had already taken lots of stereotypical photos, I wanted to show how femininity changes and alters through time, by dressing models up in different decade themes outfits.

I chose to use the same technique as Cindy Sherman for this photoshoot, because I also decided to dress up my models as different characters, just as Sherman did. However, she did it to represent different female stereotypes, but I did it to show how femininity changed through time. I did this, because I already had lots of stereotype based photographs.

However, I did also explore some of the same stereotypes that Cindy Sherman did, like women are too emotional. I decided to recreate the same image of a female crying to show this. I also then made a black and white copy of this photo, because black and white can represent feelings of sadness. Cindy Sherman also created a black and white image.

I then also decided to present this stereotype in a different way. I had my model look into the mirror and act upset/ emotional.

Then, I experimented with another stereotype that Cindy Sherman experimented with, which was that women should be housewives. However, I experimented with this in a different way. I used a broom as a prop to show that women should clean the house, but Sherman used items that are found in the kitchen as props, as she was presenting the stereotype that women should cook. These are both stereotypical jobs of a housewife.

Cindy Sherman used nature (trees), to present femininity, so I took influence from her and her photographs and did the same thing. I had my model stand at the tree and hold onto it and Sherman sat on a tree and stood in front of it. Then, I experimented with other elements of nature (flowers) to present femininity.

Sherman also experimented with mirrors, when portraying femininity, so I took influence and decided to do the same.

In Sherman’s photo her model looks upset, so I recreated it with an image of my model looking in the mirror upset. However, I also think she looks insecure and that is why she has so much make up on. This presents two stereotypes of females, which is that they should wear makeup and that they are insecure. I decided to experiment with these two stereotypes using mirrors, just as Sherman has done.

These two images show my models looking insecure, just like Sherman’s photo does. I also experimented with my model looking in the mirror while applying makeup, because her model had lots of makeup on.

Cahun and Sherman

In this photo I experimented with ‘selfies’, because both Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman took photos of themselves.

Conclusion

in conclusion, I think I’ve recreated or taken inspiration from these photos and it has come out well and presented the same idea. I also like how I haven’t directly copied my chosen artists, but I have taken ideas from them, but executed it in my own way.